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Despite pilot shortage, few students choosing aviation

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By Arshy Mann — CUP Western
Bureau Chief

VANCOUVER (CUP) — With
unemployment for young people at
Canada at record highs, there’s at least
one field that is in dire need of new
entrants: aviation.

With baby-boomers retiring en
masse and increased demand from the
developing world, over 97,000 pilots
will be needed in Canada and the
United States alone over the next two
decade.

Despite the need, Marion Harris,
the student services coordinator at
Coastal Pacific Aviation, which works
with the University of the Fraser
Valley to offer a bachelor’s of business
administration (BBA) in aviation, said
that the number of students training to
hit the skies is actually dropping.

UFV’s BBA in aviation is one of
a handful of programs in Canada that
allow students to gain a commercial
pilot’s license concurrently with a
bachelor’s degree.

“We’re certainly not running at
capacity by any stretch,” she said,
adding that they currently have 55

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Over 97,000 pilots will be needed in Canada and the U.S. over the next decade

students enrolled in the program. “We
could take on again as many students as
we have right now ... But again, there
[are] big things holding students back.”

The biggest of which is money —
UFV’s four-year aviation degree costs
approximately $95,000.

“Tt’s such a big financial
commitment and we are in the firm
belief that it has become more difficult
for people. There’s probably a lot of
people out there who would really
be good at something like this ... but
sometimes the financial end of things is
just too big,” she said.

“Yet you’ve got companies like Air
Canada retiring a large group of people.
You’ ve got countries like China and
India that have huge demand to the tune
of 2,500 pilots a year. You’ve got to
create those people from somewhere.”

Harris said that student loans in
British Columbia cover less than half of
the costs for the program.

“The government isn’t keeping up
as far as we’re concerned with what
student loans would be required to do
a program like this,” she said. “There
isn’t enough money for them to do this.”

Despite the glut of available
jobs, once students do get their pilots
licenses, they still have to pay their
dues.

Most go on to either fly small
planes in Northern Canada or work as
instructors at flight schools.

Dave Field, a recent graduate of
the program, said that the situation can
be tough for young pilots.

“You have these huge costs [for]
getting the licenses and once you do get
[them] you typically don’t make very
much money as an instructor or even as
a pilot for a small carrier.”

Field, who paid for his education
through a combination of familial
support, summer jobs and loans, said
that the goal of most new pilots is to
build up flight hour.

“As a pilot right out of flight
school working your way up to that
bigger and better job, hours are really
the currency. A lot of airlines have
hour-minimum requirements to get a
job,” he said.

And, according to Field, some
companies are willing to take
advantage of that fact.

“A lot of skydiving operations don’t
pay their pilots anything. [They] fly for
free because they want a position where
they can be building time, which, for
me, I don’t agree with.”

Despite the difficulties, Harris said
that aviation continues to be a lucrative
career.

“There’s a lot of first officers out
there making $100,000 to $120,000.
And there’s a lot of captains out there
making the high $100,000s to $200,000.
But that’s not coming when you’re 20
or 30 years old — that’s coming when
you’re in your 40s or early 50s when
you’re making that kind of money.”

She maintains, however, that people
shouldn’t choose aviation for the money.

“There has to be a passion. It’s not
something that you found last week,

I don’t believe,” she said. “I think it’s
something that someone had in them
probably since childhood.”

And Field, who said that he has
wanted to be a pilot for as long as he can
remember, agrees.

“You have to be passionate about
flying and aviation to do this, because
it’s a huge sacrifice.”